World War: BALKAN THEATRE: Il Duce Talks Tanks

In the Adriano Theatre in Rome the
Blackshirts roared. First they roared with laughter. Then with anger.
Then with exultation.

Benito Mussolini was speaking, and he was in good form. "I have come to
look you in the eye," he said, "and to take your temperature and to
break my silence, dear to me especially in wartime." This was his first
speech since Nov. 18, when the first shock of terrible Greek
counter-attacks had undermined Italian morale. That day he promised
grimly: "We shall break Greece's back; whether in two months or twelve...